From the New Yorker’s latest article on Sam Altman

by luppup

7 Comments

  1. Interesting_Sun_6993 on

    Uhhhhhhhh, Ive been applying for hundreds of jobs since i got my masters degree last year.. i volunteer to go check for jobs thru the portal.

  2. BinghamtonMafia on

    From Gemini…

    The quote about “portals on earth” and “summoning aliens” is a central, chilling moment in the New Yorker article, but it’s important to clarify who said it.

    ​According to the article (published April 6, 2026), Sam Altman did not say those words. Instead, they are attributed to a former OpenAI executive who was describing Altman’s vision for the future of AI infrastructure.

    ​The Specific Quote

    ​The article by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz reports:

    ​“The truth of this is, we’re building portals from which we’re genuinely summoning aliens,” a former OpenAI executive said. “The portals currently exist in the United States and China, and Sam has added one in the Middle East.” He went on, “I think it’s just, like, wildly important to get how scary that should be. It’s the most reckless thing that has been done.”

    ​The Context of “Portals”

    ​The “portals” in this metaphor refer to massive data centers (specifically “Stargate,” the $500 billion joint venture with Microsoft). The executive was expressing fear that the scale of this computing power acts as a gateway for a non-human, “alien” intelligence to enter our world—and that building these gateways in foreign autocracies like the UAE is dangerously reckless.

    ​Sam Altman’s Connection

    ​While Altman didn’t use the “portal” phrase, he has frequently used similar metaphors to describe AI:

    ​”Alien Intelligence”: In multiple interviews (notably with Lex Fridman), Altman has described AI not as a “human-lite” tool, but as a fundamentally different, alien-like intelligence that humans are learning to interact with.

    ​The “Summoning” Metaphor: This echoes a famous warning from Elon Musk, who once compared building AI to “summoning the demon.” The former executive in the article seems to be using the “alien” language to describe the reality of what Altman is building at scale.

    ​In summary: The “portals” line is a critic’s warning about the sheer power and geographic reach of the hardware Sam Altman is building, characterizing the data centers as physical gateways for a force we may not be able to control. 

  3. They can’t even make a model that allows bare skin and they’re making portals sybau